Saturday Night Live has a large cast list, including both main cast members and featured players. And not surprisingly, many of them have a presence on social media. But not many of them have subscriber numbers in the six figures.
There are a dozen who make the cut, however, with more than 99,999 followers. Just out of the top 10 are Chris Redd, who falls into 11th place with 191,000 followers, and Ego Nwodim in 12th spot with 173,000 followers at the time of this writing. Some of the most high-profile cast members, meanwhile, don't have a social media presence. Pete Davidson, for example, famously got rid of his social media presence, while Kate McKinnon doesn't appear to have an official Instagram account.
Heidi Gardner – 194K Followers
Some of Gardner's most notable characters on SNL include teen film critic Bailey Gismert, Goop employee Brie Baskin Johns who is always worried she is going to be fired, and Sandy, a contestant on a reality baking competition show. Gardner was also in one of the best SNL sketches of 2021 called "Amusement Park" as one of several awkward teenagers trying to figure out how they should split up to go on rides.
She joined the cast in 2017 and has since acquired a healthy number of followers on Instagram, cracking the top 10 of current cast members. She posts plenty of photos from her sketches on the show and promotes her podcast.
Melissa Villasenor – 291K Followers
Known for her skills in doing impressions, Villasenor has impersonated everyone from Sarah Silverman to Owen Wilson, Bjork, and Gwen Stefani. Prior to making the cut on Saturday Night Live and first as a featured player in 2016, Villasenor had made it to the semi-finals on America's Got Talent.
Villasenor's Instagram account is full of images of her with various celebrities, including those who have recently hosted episodes of the sketch comedy show. But she has plenty of candids of herself out and about as well, and photos of her performing stand-up comedy.
Kyle Mooney – 328K Followers
A member of the cast since 2013, Mooney has also done other projects, including co-starring in the HBO series Hello Ladies and starring in and writing the film Brigsby Bear. He also released an adult cartoon called Saturday Morning All Star Hits! that he co-created, co-wrote, executive produced, and stars in.
Mooney often plays awkward, clueless characters on the show, but does impressions as well, of everyone from Chris Kirkpatrick to Joey Lawrence and Steven Tyler. His Instagram shows off his loud and fun personality with plenty of photos of his various projects and sketches from SNL.
Bowen Yang – 414K Followers
Writing for SNL since 2018 and then promoted to on-air in 2019 as a featured player, Yang quickly became a fan favorite, even receiving a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his role in 2021. He also made history as SNL's first Chinese American cast member, the third openly gay male cast member, and the fourth cast member of Asian descent. Now a main cast member, Yang does impersonations of people like Kim Jong-un and Chen "Trade Daddy" Biao.
His Instagram account, which is hilariously registered under the name @fayedunaway, features a wide variety of photos of his sketches, him out and about with friends, magazine article screenshots, and more.
Chloe Fineman – 575K Followers
One of SNL's best celebrity impressionists, Fineman has been with the show since 2019. She impresses with spot-on impersonations of celebrities like Drew Barrymore, Nicole Kidman, Timothee Chalamet, Britney Spears, and Carole Baskin.
With more than half a million followers and under 800 posts to date, Fineman has acquired herself a nice following. She posts lots of fun personal photos with the odd show pic thrown in for good measure, such as her recent spot-on impersonation of Julia Garner as Anna Sorokin in Inventing Anna.
Cecily Strong – 639K Followers
Strong has turned her long-time career as a cast member on SNL since 2012 into a successful movie career as well, with supporting roles in movies like Ghostbusters, The Meddler, and The Female Brain. She also co-stars in the Apple TV+ musical comedy series Schmigadoon! and was invited to host the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2015.
Strong uses her Instagram mostly for video clips of various performances and photos of her various activities, from book tours to on-set shots and funny memes.
Colin Jost – 684K Followers
Rounding out the top four, Jost, who is married to A-list actor Scarlett Johansson, doesn't appear in many sketches on SNL, but he does serve as a writer and heads up each segment of the Weekend Update parody news program alongside Michael Che. He has been writing for SNL since 2005 and currently serves as one of the head writers. Despite holding this post for some time, however, Jost still does not yet rank among the best Weekend Update hosts on SNL.
Follow him on Instagram for hilarious images and video clips from the show, details of his various appearances, and lots of funny photos.
Michael Che – 714K Followers
Che has clearly deleted his previous posts and currently has an empty but verified Instagram account, and while he used to have just one photo: a page from a Hollywood Reporter article naming his attorney for making the list of the Top 100 Hollywood Attorneys, that pic is also now gone.
Che, co-anchor of Weekend Update and co-head writer alongside Colin Jost, had been working for SNL for some time when he became the co-anchor for Weekend Update in 2014, a post he has held since. He had plenty more on his Instagram account but seems to wipe it clean from time to time. In addition to SNL, Che also created, wrote, and stars in the show That Damn Michael Che.
Kenan Thompson – 776K Followers
The longest-running current cast member, on-screen on SNL since 2003, Thompson is also the longest-tenured cast member in the history of the show. In addition to being a huge player in each episode with his various characters like Diondre Cole, Elliot Pants, and Reese D'What, Thompson also does impersonations of people like Al Sharpton, Steve Harvey, and Tyler Perry. He has branched out of late with his own sitcom Kenan, which premiered in 2021, aired for two seasons thus far, and earned him a Primetime Emmy nomination. Kenan remains one of the best TV shows starring SNL alumni.
On Instagram, Thompson promotes his podcast, business ventures, various projects outside of SNL, and more. He has plenty of selfies as well.
Aidy Bryant – 991K Followers
A poster woman for body positivity, Bryant made that the subject of her sitcom Shrill, in which she starred as a plus-sized woman determined to achieve all her dreams in life while remaining true to herself and her size, despite others telling her she can't. On SNL since 2012, making her one of the longest-running SNL cast members, Bryant has earned three Primetime Emmy Award nominations (she was nominated for Shrill as well.) Bryant has a number of recurring characters on the show, including Morgan, host of the Girlfriends Talk Show who is constantly ignored by her much cooler best friend, and Tonker Bell, the much ruder half-sister of Tinker Bell. Fans, in particular, love Bryant's exaggerated impersonation of Senator Ted Cruz.
With the most Instagram followers of any current SNL cast member, closing in on a million, Bryant posts plenty of selfies, photos from the show, and even fun outtakes from Shrill.